The Likud Party platform continues to negate a Palestinian state. The party's campaign office says that Prime Minister Sharon, whose position in favor of arrangements leading to a Palestinian state is well known, agreed to leave the platform as is. "Although he feels that there is no alternative other than the establishment of such a state," staffers said, "the matter is not practical now and therefore there is no reason to change the platform."
The Likud has sent out calming messages to the right-wing regarding a more immediate threat as well. Sharon has no intention of forming a government only with Labor and Shinui, said aides close to him today, even if those two parties alone give him a Knesset majority. "We won't abandon our natural partners," they said.
In other party platform notes:
Meretz is calling to nullify the Chief Rabbinate, and to grant citizenship not just to Jews but to anyone who "can prove his bonds with the Jewish People and Israel."
Labor's platform fails to acknowledge eternal Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, calls for the elimination of the Ministry of Religions, and calls for the recognition of Reform conversions and civil marriages performed in Israel. Shas says this platform renders Labor a copy of the anti-religious Shinui party in that it would erase all vestiges of the Jewish character of the state.
The Likud has sent out calming messages to the right-wing regarding a more immediate threat as well. Sharon has no intention of forming a government only with Labor and Shinui, said aides close to him today, even if those two parties alone give him a Knesset majority. "We won't abandon our natural partners," they said.
In other party platform notes:
Meretz is calling to nullify the Chief Rabbinate, and to grant citizenship not just to Jews but to anyone who "can prove his bonds with the Jewish People and Israel."
Labor's platform fails to acknowledge eternal Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, calls for the elimination of the Ministry of Religions, and calls for the recognition of Reform conversions and civil marriages performed in Israel. Shas says this platform renders Labor a copy of the anti-religious Shinui party in that it would erase all vestiges of the Jewish character of the state.